You are here

Pages

Since we really didnt have a proper catch-all before figured i'd create a new one now.

For those that arent familiar with the game:

It's a hardcore pvp MMO. I like to think of it as a more focused predecessor of UO.

* Role-playing, strategy, and shooter action in a MMOG
* The largest handcrafted online world of its kind.
* Over 10 thousand concurrent players per game world.
* The largest MMORPG battles ever - involving thousands.
* Ultimate PvP action, the #1 choice of top players and clans.
* Seamless, zoneless, non-instanced world. No invisible walls.
* No safe zones. Full loot. PvP everywhere with accountability.
* No more leveling. Improve the skills you use.
* Fight on mounts, ships, man cannons and vehicles.
* Siege and conquer cities, build and protect your own.
* Craft any item in the world and put your name on it.

As we count down towards Darkfall Unholy Wars, we would like to suggest that you get your accounts in order and to ask you to please update your account information. If you are experiencing issues like: forgotten username, passwords, email address, accounts not active etc., please submit a ticket to customer support with the Title “Preparing for Darkfall Unholy Wars”.

We need your information for matters which relate to offering our existing customers a price promotion, but also in order to select some of you for various other privileges and requests.

We have come to a decision, not without much internal debate, that instead of commercial release this Wednesday as planned we are going to launch the game for playtesting first. We also believe that we owe the community a thorough explanation for this last minute decisions, so the reasons behind it are the following:

While we have done a lot of internal testing for the game, the platform has been thoroughly field tested, and the game has also been tested by external partners, we have always felt that the game should be tested by the players and last checks corroborate this. Time however was not on our side.
Secondarily, some of the reasons which caused us to slip from our original launch date last month are not yet fully resolved to our satisfaction and a bit more time is needed. For the record, what’s left shouldn’t take more than a few days longer. Being Greenlit on Steam so quickly was beyond our expectations, this success was 100% community driven and it showed us how important to the community this is. After evaluating the procedure needed for proper Steam integration, we realized that if we launch on schedule it would be impossible for us to launch with Steam.

Despite considering this a setback, we actually also consider it a perfect opportunity to get the community involved directly in the fine tuning of the game features before launching on Steam. We have been working with the dream of making Darkfall Unholy Wars the best competitive experience ever and lack of community feedback would have been a missed opportunity. We also believe that a Steam launch can help the game get the critical mass it needs to be as fun as it can possibly be, and we feel it’s important to have the game tested more thoroughly before this happens.

So now what?

We’re launching a fully playable beta version of the game as soon as we get the build ready. We have a firm ETA for Monday,December 17th. By beta version we mean the game will be running in debug mode so that we can quickly get valuable feedback from playtesting and we can identify and address issues as quickly as possible. Pre-orders get beta access; we’re making pre-orders available on Friday so you can download the game over the weekend.
Some details regarding the pre-order: returning Darkfall players will get the game at the price of the subscription during pre-order. New players will get the game at a discount. Pre-orders get 30 days of game-time when the game launches, beta access for as long as that is live, plus you can reserve your character’s name. We will also explore offering a head start. Pre-order slots may be limited and will be throttled if needed.
We can focus on playing and working with you to identify any bugs and imbalances and will continue working closely with our players to improve the game so that by the time the game launches it will be as perfect as possible. There will be developer – player interaction on issues that come up, and we want to keep developing a user-centric culture throughout the lifecycle of Darkfall Unholy Wars.
We will also be working round the clock on getting the game ready for a Steam launch with all the Steam features we want integrated. The Darkfall Unholy Wars launch should happen as soon as we’re cleared to do a Steam launch, we assume that the game will be properly tested by then as well. Our estimate is January after the holidays. We will announce a specific launch date as soon as possible. We need to estimate the exact time it takes to integrate all the Steam features, and to assess what feedback we get from our playtesters.

We feel there are compelling arguments for us to take a little extra time and to involve the community. The very amusing community insider joke “we’ll do it live” is not how we prefer to do things, but in the past we had been forced to by our circumstances or by external factors.

We regret the last minute announcement, we had to agree on this with several parties and get approval from all our departments so we’ve been agonizing over this since last week. We do appreciate your understanding on this, it was not an easy or a pleasant decision for us to make, especially at the last minute, and we feel badly that we’re not true to our word even though everyone at Aventurine has been working extremely hard for tomorrow’s planned release date. However, we also feel that this is the best possible option for the game, for the players, and we promise to make the best of it involving you as much as possible in making Darkfall Unholy Wars reach the potential it deserves.

More information on the playtesting process and on the pre-orders, will become available in separate announcements starting tomorrow. We’ll also be happy to address your concerns and provide answers to your questions.

Same as before. I feel like it's a spiritual successor to UO. A hardcore fantasy sandbox. The story of the game is your personal story and what you do with the world around you. It can be as simple as a hunter/gatherer for your tribe, clan or as complicated as political intrigue of the same levels you'd find in D.C.

The pro's with this reboot is they've reworked their UI and made it more intuitive. They've also reworked the class system where it's not entirely skill based so everyone has a solid 'base' to start from. I think this will help minimize folks being out paced by folks who macro or leave the game and try to come back later. There's also been a graphics upgrade so it looks better.

There's only been a small handful of games that got me charged from my head down to my toes. Where the experiences wont be forgotten lightly and always looked for in games in the future. One of the things i've always been looking for since AC and UO and beyond is that hook that got me playing mmos to start with.

Luckily i've got to enjoy 2 of them in the past year. First with Darkfall and then again later with DayZ. Going out on a hunting trip with your friends knowing that if you screw up could also mean you let your mates down. Having your heart feel like it's about to pop out of your chest because you're one hit away from dying and losing everything you spent all day working for while at the same time being one hit away from killing the last guy that's jumped you... gaming bliss.

The cons are it's still being developed by Aventurine. If you've kept track in this thread or the others; them postponing isnt anything new. The ways they've gone about developing this game (over a decade now) have been extremely frustrating, but interesting at the same time because it goes against convention. Another worry is that they've over compensated trying to accommodate folks who were intimidated at how hard core the game was. While they updated the graphics they're still dated compared to current AAA games.

That's all i know up front. Really wont know more till i get my hands on it.

This is hardcore as it gets. You die and you lose everything you have on you unless a guild mate grabs it for you. This is also as political as it can get. If you're not not part of guild or you are and that guild is not part of alliance you're everyone's bitch. There's safe zones out there, but odds of you surviving out side of those are slim and they've made it where you can only get so much xp inside a safe zone. They force everyone out after a certain time so people can only craft and trade in peace. Advancement is done out in the world. Still it is possible to get by on you're own you just have to be super paranoid and super careful when you go hunting. Plus being by yourself means you have to go hunting other crafters to get the materials you need ot keep you supplied.

Though they've improved it I still find the ui a bit frustrating. In terms of general game play I'm still total noob but so far I'm finding myself starting to feel like this would have been great - in 2003 era. Going to press on and try to give it a fair chance though.

To the moon wrote:

The ending isn't any more important than any of the moments leading to it.

yea they improved it by leaps and bounds over what it was, but it's like they're still intentionally leaving it sparse or unfriendly overall.

The design docs or the start of this game was back in 2001 so that's not a surprise it feels like a 2003 game. This has taken Aventurine FOREVER to get this out and then again to this point. Even so it's so much damn fun in spite of itself.

I was out leveling up and ran out of reagents to cast spells so i spent some time gathering herbs. (prowress gains are more outside of the safezones) Then i hear footsteps and started a game of ring of roseys with 3 bandits. It gave me enough time to spawn my mount and bug on out and safely get back to town. From the moment i heard the footsteps till i was in the safe zone it felt like i didnt breathe and my heart was racing. This game and DayZ are the only ones that get me charged up like that.

Because I'm stupid and had too much time on my hands (yes, even with moving ... gave myself the day off) I picked this up today. Didn't take long for me to get ganked. I have no mount now. That's really the worst part.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.